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Freud, Dalí and the Metamorphosis of Narcissus

10/03/2018 - 02/24/2019

open to public
Organizer: Freud Museum London
Venue: Freud Museum London
20 Maresfield Gardens
NW3 5SX London
United Kingdom>> Website

Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dalí are two of the most significant and influential figures of the twentieth century.Dalí was a passionate admirer of the father of psychoanalysis and finally met him in London on July 19th 1938. This year 2018 marks the 80th anniversary of this event. A new exhibition at the Freud Museum will explore the connection between the two men, starting from their one meeting, to which Dalí brought his recently completed painting The Metamorphosis of Narcissus.

The painting, on loan from the Tate, will be the central point in the exhibition for an exploration of the extensive influence of Freud on Dalí and on Surrealism. Also considered will be Freud’s own attitude to painting, illuminated by his response to this encounter with Dalí.

Dalí had read The Interpretation of Dreams as an art student in Madrid in the early 1920s. This was, he wrote, “one of the capital discoveries of my life, and I was seized with a real vice of self-interpretation, not only of my dreams but of everything that happened to me.” This passion for self-interpretation took not just visual but also written form. In 1933 Dalí wrote a “psycho-analytical essay”, as he described it, on the famous painting by Jean-François Millet, The Angelus. The essay was eventually published as a book, The Tragic Myth of Millet’s ‘Angelus’. In it, Dalí explores his own obsession with the painting, which he lays out in the form of a Freudian case history.

In 1938, after several attempts, Dalí finally met his hero Freud, newly arrived in London after fleeing from Nazi-occupied Vienna. The meeting was brokered by Stefan Zweig, who was present, together with Dalí’s friend and patron Edward James, who owned The Metamorphosis of Narcissus. Dalí hoped his painting would allow him to engage Freud in a discussion of the psychoanalytical theory of Narcissism and would help him to demonstrate his concept of critical paranoia.

Dali was given permission to sketch Freud during the visit. These drawings, now in the Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dalí in Spain, will be on display, and Dali’s long poem with the same title as the painting, The Metamorphosis of Narcissus. There will also be material from the Freud Museum’s archive and collections, shedding light on Freud’s attitude to Dalí and their meeting.

Other themes of the exhibition will include the classical origins of the myth of Narcissus and the place of narcissism in psychoanalytic thinking. Freud’s own collections will play a part. For example, they include a copy of the classical relief Gradiva; Freud’s study of Wilhelm Jensen’s novel Gradiva was the inspiration for some of Dalí’s important paintings and drawings on this theme from the early 1930s.

Through images, including original paintings and drawings, photographs and prints, and documents including letters, manuscripts, books and Freud’s appointment diary, the intense – if somewhat one-sided -relationship between two extraordinary thinkers and creators will be explored.

The exhibition will be curated by the distinguished art historian Dawn Ades, curator of the recent highly successful Dali/Duchamp exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue, and an exciting public programme, which will include lectures and debates on topics including Narcissism, the relationship between art and psychoanalysis through Freud’s writings on Leonardo and Michelangelo, Freud and surrealism, psychoanalysis and classicism, and Lacan’s debt to Dalí’s critical paranoia.

The Law of the Mother: Genevieve Morel in conversation with Darian Leader

12/14/2018 19:00

open to public
Organizer: Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research und Freud Museum London
Venue: Freud Museum London
20 Maresfield Gardens
NW3 5SX London
United Kingdom>> Website
In this ground-breaking book, Genevieve Morel explores whether it is possible for the child to escape subjection from this maternal law and develop their own sexual identity.

Through clinical examples and critical commentary, the book illustrates the range and power of maternal influence on the child, and how this can generate different forms of sexual ambiguity.

The book avoids many of the moral and political prejudices that paralyze twenty-first century society, be they related to legislation on marriage, parentage or adoption, the status of “mental health”, or the limits to the supposed ownership of the human body. Insightful and revealing, The Law of the Mother will be of great interest to Lacanian psychoanalysts, as well as to researchers in the fields of gender studies and sexuality.

Geneviève Morel is a psychoanalyst practising in Paris and in Lille. She is a member of the Association Lilloise pour la Psychanalyse et son Histoire and of the group Savoir et Cliniques. She teaches at the University of Paris VIII. She is the author of several books including ‘Sexual Ambiguities’ (Psychology, Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy).

Darian Leader is a psychoanalyst working in London and a member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research and of The College of Psychoanalysts-UK. He is the author of several books including: ‘Why do women write more letters than they post?’; ‘Freud’s Footnotes’; ‘Stealing the Mona Lisa: What Art Stops Us From Seeing’; ‘Why do people get ill?’ (with David Corfield) , ‘The New Black: Mourning, Melancholia and Depression’, ‘What is Madness?’ , ‘Strictly Bipolar’ and ‘Hands’, and frequently about contemporary art.

Cost: £9 - £12

The Law of the Mother: An Essay on the Sexual Sinthome

12/14/2018 19:00

open to public
Organizer: Freud Museum London
Venue: Freud Museum London
20 Maresfield Gardens
NW3 5SX London
United Kingdom>> Website

The law of the mother is made up of words charged with pleasure and suffering that leave their mark on us in early childhood.In this ground-breaking book, Genevieve Morel explores whether it is possible for the child to escape subjection from this maternal law and develop their own sexual identity.

Through clinical examples and critical commentary, the book illustrates the range and power of maternal influence on the child, and how this can generate different forms of sexual ambiguity.

The book avoids many of the moral and political prejudices that paralyze twenty-first century society, be they related to legislation on marriage, parentage or adoption, the status of “mental health”, or the limits to the supposed ownership of the human body. Insightful and revealing, The Law of the Mother will be of great interest to Lacanian psychoanalysts, as well as to researchers in the fields of gender studies and sexuality.

Geneviève Morel is a psychoanalyst practising in Paris and in Lille. She is a member of the Association Lilloise pour la Psychanalyse et son Histoire and of the group Savoir et Cliniques. She teaches at the University of Paris VIII. She is the author of several books including ‘Sexual Ambiguities’ (Psychology, Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy).

Darian Leader is a psychoanalyst working in London and a member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research and of The College of Psychoanalysts-UK. He is the author of several books including: ‘Why do women write more letters than they post?’; ‘Freud’s Footnotes’; ‘Stealing the Mona Lisa: What Art Stops Us From Seeing’; ‘Why do people get ill?’ (with David Corfield) , ‘The New Black: Mourning, Melancholia and Depression’, ‘What is Madness?’ , ‘Strictly Bipolar’ and ‘Hands’, and frequently about contemporary art.